SAN MATEO — With just a few weeks to go before a popular ice-skating rink closes to make room for one or more retail stores, dozens of supporters held a rally outside the venue, hoping to spur the city to take action to preserve it.

The sign-toting crowd outside the Ice Center on Saturday afternoon included youth hockey players and their families, coaches and Rawhide, the mascot of the San Francisco Bulls minor league hockey team. The center’s hockey leagues are scrambling to find ice time at other crowded Bay Area rinks.

Fourteen-year-old Ben Frankel, of Palo Alto, who plays on a traveling team based at the rink, said he has “no idea” where his team will play in the fall. His mother, Marianne, said the Ice Center fosters a sense of community among players and their families — and provides a place where important lessons are learned.

“This is the place that teaches courage, teamwork, responsibility,” she said.

The controversy stems from a decision by SPI Holdings, the owner of Bridgepointe Shopping Center, a complex of big-box stores near Foster City, not to renew the Ice Center’s lease when it expires at the end of this month. SPI Holdings, which bought the shopping center in 2005, plans to convert the space to retail.

The master plan for the shopping center, however, requires an ice-skating rink or similar recreational use — the city extracted that concession as a condition for approving the plan in 1998. SPI submitted a pre-application in May of last year to amend the plan to allow the company to provide amenities elsewhere in the city instead, but the proposal stalled. The city held no hearings, and SPI withdrew the pre-application April 29.

The result is anger and confusion among hundreds of rink users, who wonder why the shopping center will be allowed to close the venue before the city approves an alternative that complies with the master plan. They want San Mateo to preserve the rink at Bridgepointe or help the operators find a new location.

The backlash comes on the heels of the city’s 7-Eleven fiasco, when planners allowed a store to open last year in apparent violation of the city’s zoning laws. The City Council overturned the decision, leading 7-Eleven to sue the city. The store is still operating.

Ron Munekawa, San Mateo’s chief planner, said the city conferred with SPI in July and August as staffers prepared to hire a consultant to do a demographic study of rink users. The analysis would have helped the city come up with alternative uses that would serve a similar population. But SPI did not follow through on the city’s request to fund the analysis, Munekawa said. Such studies typically cost $15,000 to $20,000, he added.

It was around that time that the proposal went “dormant,” Munekawa said, and SPI dropped out of regular contact with the city. Munekawa said the city is researching whether SPI will be subject to any penalties come June for being out of compliance with the master plan. SPI’s proposed amendment must be approved by the City Council.

David Satterfield, a spokesman for SPI, said the company intends to restart the pre-application process once it takes control of the rink June 1. The company has proposed several options for making recreational improvements, including a synthetic-turf playing field elsewhere in San Mateo and a bathroom at Mariner’s Island Park.

“SPI is still working closely with the city in determining what that recreational use will be and where it will be — nothing has been nailed down yet,” said Satterfield, adding that SPI has spent “tens of thousands of dollars” in recent years helping the Ice Center to find a new location.

Some Ice Center advocates don’t think the company’s proposals would make up for the loss of the rink.

“A toilet for the ice rink?” asked Julie McAuliffe, of San Mateo. “Give me a break.”

Hockey players aren’t the Ice Center’s only patrons. There are people who simply drop in to get some exercise. Hundreds of young figure skaters practice there as well, said the rink’s figure-skating director, Kim Delli-Gatti, who will be out of work when the facility closes.

Figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, an Olympic gold medalist who grew up in Fremont, trained at the Ice Center for several years as a youth in the late 1980s. Supporters of the rink reached out to Yamaguchi and got a response.

“I’m saddened by the thought that a place where so many dreams are pursued and realized, including my own, is shutting its doors,” Yamaguchi said in a statement provided by her husband, retired professional hockey player Bret Hedican. “I sincerely hope the city changes their mind.”

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